Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

C H U R C H I L L A N D I N T E L L I G E N C EIntelligence Today: What We Can LearnThe Churchill Centre has always tried to avoid suggesting what Churchill would have to sayabout contemporary situations, which would be pure conjecture. But much can be learnedfrom considering similar episodes in Churchill's career, and his responses to them.D A V I D F R E E M A NPARALLELS: Sixtyyears ago. Sovietspies Guy Burgess(left) and DonaldMaclean foundChurchill focusing onwhat mattered.In the summer of 2010 the alleged non-profit websiteWikiLeaks published 77,000 classified documentssnatched from Pentagon computers that related to thewar in Afghanistan. Unredacted, the material included thenames of Afghan informants who had been cooperatingwith Coalition Forces. A Taliban spokesman told The NewYork Times that a commission had been formed “to findout about people who are spying” and report the results to aTaliban court. 1The founder and proprietor of WikiLeaks, 39-year-oldAustralian Julian Assange, remained defiant about his decisionto publish the documents even as AmnestyInternational and Reporters Without Borders joined thePentagon (an unusual combination) in criticizing an actionthat potentially endangers those Afghans whose names werepublished. Other workers at WikiLeaks have publiclybroken with their colleague over his behavior.Mr. Assange is now in serious trouble. The U.S. governmentis weighing a possible prosecution under the 1917Espionage Act, and Australian officials have made it clear toMr. Assange that they will support any such action.Welcomed initially in Sweden, Assange had to leaveStockholm after accusations of sexual assault that could leadto another prosecution. When Finest Hour went to press,Assange was in Switzerland, where he was contemplating anapplication for asylum.What does all this have to do with WinstonChurchill? There are two Churchillian aspects to it, onegeneral and one specific.The preceding articles by Sir Martin Gilbert andDavid Stafford (pages 12-27) show in detail that Churchillvery properly took great care in safeguarding intelligencesources. Whatever the ultimate fate of Mr. Assange, surelythe real concern now must be with determining how it >>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Professor Freeman (dafreeman@exchange.fullerton.edu) teaches History at California State University Fullerton and is a longtime contributor toFinest Hour. His recent articles include “Churchill and the League of Nations 1934-1939” (FH 147); “A Polemic, Not a History” and “TheFriendship Between Churchill and F.E. Smith” (FH 139); “Did Britain Fail?” (FH 135); and “‘Ungrateful Volcano’: Churchill and the Making of Iraq”(FH 132); as well as numerous book reviews and contributions to “Churchill Proceedings” from his papers at Churchill Conferences.FINEST HOUR 149 / 35